Another premier rejects funding

QUEENSLAND has joined Victoria in telling Julia Gillard to ''butt out of education'' as it revealed it would follow Premier Ted Baillieu in hatching its own school funding reform plan.

In the latest setback to the Prime Minister's hopes of striking a deal with the states, the Queensland government declared on Thursday the Prime Minister should "give up" on her Gonski school funding reforms.

Queensland is the second conservative-run state to go its own way, despite Ms Gillard's insistence that they sign up to the federal plan at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in April.

Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said on Thursday he was frustrated by the federal government's failure to detail how it would fund the Gonski reforms and accused federal Labor of using education as a "wedge" during an election year.

He said while Queensland wanted to work with the Gillard government, it would follow Victoria's lead in preparing its own plan.

''The Premier [Campbell Newman] has already expressed that he sees some merit in the Victorian plan but most importantly, we are our own jurisdiction with our own challenges and that's why we need to come up with our own plan that suits us, not have some sort of Australian government idea that they have come up with that they want to impose on the states,'' Mr Langbroek said.

Federal Schools Minister Peter Garrett condemned the move and said it was wrong of the Queensland government to suggest it did not have details of the plan.

''They have had details of the model for months and state officials have been working through it with Commonwealth representatives,'' he said.

Mr Baillieu announced last Saturday that the Victorian government would pursue its own education reforms, which included a voucher system for disadvantaged students.

Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos accused Coalition leaders in Queensland and Victoria of putting politics ahead of the needs of children.

Ms Gillard has placed the plan to inject an extra $6.5 billion annually into school funding at the centre of her re-election pitch.